The Standard reported yesterday how police no longer suspected Madeleine is the victim of an abduction. The McCanns responded to the reports by reiterating their belief their daughter is still alive while a family spokeswoman described allegations made in Portuguese newspapers as very "hurtful".

Kate McCann is being set up by Portuguese police to take the blame over Madeleine, it was claimed today.

The husband of a woman serving 16 years in another missing child case in the Algarve said: "I am worried Kate will be framed for a crime she did not commit, the way it happened to my wife."

The warning comes as pressure mounted on the McCanns after Portuguese police said Madeleine, who was three when she disappeared, died in her bedroom following the discovery of specks of blood on the wall.

Three years ago Leonor Cipriano was convicted of murdering her nine-year-old daughter Joana although her body has never been found.

The detective leading the hunt for Madeleine has been charged with criminal offences in the Joana case amid claims that a confession was beaten out of Cipriano.

The Portuguese woman claims she is the victim of a miscarriage of justice over the alleged murder seven miles from the spot where Madeleine went missing on 3 May.

In echoes of the Madeleine case, the investigation into Joana's disappearance got off to a bad start when the Republican National Guard failed to seal off the house where she was last seen.

Joana's stepfather Leandro Silva told the Evening Standard: "Joana's mother never did anything and she was arrested.

"I am fearful the same thing will happen to Kate McCann. Whenever I watch the news it reminds me of Joana. It is hard.

"I just pray Madeleine appears. With Joana the police did a bad job. They didn't spend enough time looking for the child."

Goncalo Amaral, who is co-ordinating the search for Madeleine, and four other Portuguese police officers, were charged in June with offences relating to the inquiry into the disappearance of Joana.

Cipriano has alleged that she was beaten into a confession during a police interrogation that took place without her lawyer or the knowledge of the public prosecutor.

Portugal's Ministerio Publico said at the time it had charged three police officers with torture, a fourth with omission of evidence and a fifth with falsification of documents. It did not reveal who had been charged with which offence.

Despite the charges, Mr Amaral, the co-ordinator of the Policia Judiciaria in Portimao, has not been suspended from working on the Madeleine investigation.

Police sources have suggested that Mr Amaral was "very angry" about the allegations and was considering taking action against the Ministerio Publico.

"He is very professional and has had a lot of success in solving cases," the source said. "He is very upset because reporters never speak of these successes."

Meanwhile, the Evening Standard has revealed that the planned publicity campaign to mark 100 days since Madeleine disappeared have been put on hold amid the recent damaging accusations.

Mrs McCann, a doctor, and her husband Gerry, a cardiologist, have stayed in Praia da Luz with their two-year-old twins since Madeleine went missing while they were on holiday.

The couple, both aged 38, and six friends who dined with them on the night of Madeleine's disappearance, have come under suspicion as the police case against the only official suspect, Robert Murat, appears to be winding down.

The pressure on the McCanns follows a series of leaks from Portuguese police and the discovery of traces of blood in the apartment.

Police are understood to have spent the past two days studying ocean currents to determine where Madeleine's body - should it have been dumped at sea - would wash up.

Police sources said officers, including British detectives handling the sniffer dogs which discovered the blood in the McCanns' apartment, were scouring local beaches looking for a body.

That bolsters claims made yesterday that Madeleine was either murdered or died accidentally in her room. Police sources suggested the girl died in the room and her body was dumped in the sea.

The Standard reported yesterday how police no longer suspected Madeleine is the victim of an abduction.

The McCanns responded to the reports by reiterating their belief their daughter is still alive while a family spokeswoman described allegations made in Portuguese newspapers as very "hurtful".

The couple have campaigned tirelessly across Europe to keep the hunt for their daughter in the public eye.

Conspiracy of Silence, a documentary listed for viewing in TV Guide Magazine was to be aired on the Discovery Channel, on May 3 1994. This documentary exposed a network of religious leaders and Washington politicians who flew children to Washington D.C. for sex orgies. Many children suffered the indignity of wearing nothing but their underwear and a number displayed on a piece of cardboard hanging from their necks when being auctioned off to foreigners in Las Vegas, Nevada, and Toronto, Canada. At the last minute before airing, unknown congressmen threatened the TV Cable industry with restrictive legislation if this documentary was aired. Almost immediately, the rights to the documentary were purchased by unknown persons who ordered all copies destroyed.

This may be the same ring that Hunter S. Thompson was working on when he 'committed suicide'.

This is a reference to the Frankin Coverup in BoysTown, USA. But I hadn't known Thompson might be investigating this when he died.

As horrible and inexcusable as this all is, it is simply confirmation that those who call the shots have no reservations about robbing, raping, killing or torture to maintain their power--as Abu Graibe showed all too well.

More here on the casa pia scandal. Why is it that not one of the thousands of articles about Madelaine over the last two weeks has mentoned this unsolved crime which included death threats against a government minister? The most high-profile person amongst those charged is Paulo Pedroso, the MP and labour and training minister from 1999 to 2001 with responsibility for Casa Pia... Souto Moura also charged Jorge Ritto, a former Portuguese ambassador; Herman José, a comedian and talk show host; the popular TV games show host Carloz Cruz, known as “Mr Television”; Joao Diniz, a high society doctor; and Manuel Abrantes, a former assistant director of Casa Pia.

Portuguese President Jorge Sampaio has appeared on television to criticise a newspaper that linked him to a paedophile scandal that has dominated the news in Portugal for the last year.

Sampaio denounced the “irresponsibility” of certain newspapers for reporting “the ill-considered leaks” originating from magistrates investigating the sexual abuse scandal at the Casa Pia children’s homes. Casa Pia is one of Portugal’s oldest and most respected public institutions and runs 10 homes caring for 4,500 children.

Sampaio continued, “It’s a crime that should be punished when the time is right. The head of state cannot legitimately let these offences pass.... They have the most serious consequences for the respect and consideration due the president of the republic.”

News reports appearing in the Jornal de Noticias claimed Sampaio and Portugal’s European Commissioner Antonio Vitorino were mentioned in anonymous letters sent to the magistrates investigating the Casa Pia scandal. A few days earlier, Portugal’s Attorney General José Souto Moura formally charged 10 people, including well-known politicians and celebrities, with organising a paedophile network, sexual abuse and rape of children at Casa Pia. No date for a trial has yet been decided.

The most high-profile person amongst those charged is Paulo Pedroso, the MP and labour and training minister from 1999 to 2001 with responsibility for Casa Pia who is regarded as a future leader of the Socialist Party. The Socialist Party says the scandal is a plot and Pedroso says he is the victim of a smear campaign and, along with the others accused, denies the charges.

Souto Moura also charged Jorge Ritto, a former Portuguese ambassador; Herman José, a comedian and talk show host; the popular TV games show host Carloz Cruz, known as “Mr Television”; Joao Diniz, a high society doctor; and Manuel Abrantes, a former assistant director of Casa Pia.

The charges against these members of Portugal’s elite come after a year of investigations, 15,000 pages of evidence and the questioning of 600 witnesses. The case only saw the light of day after persistent campaigning by the abused children and their families led to reports appearing in the newspapers in November 2002.

In October 2003, Carlos Silvino, a former driver at Casa Pia, was charged with 35 counts of sexually abusing four children over a three-year period and last month charged with a further 662 counts of sexual abuse. Silvino is alleged to have organised the paedophile ring for over two decades, with many incidents apparently occurring at Ritto’s villa near Lisbon.

The Casa Pia scandal has been described as Portugal’s biggest political crisis since the overthrow of the military dictatorship in 1974. Not only have top politicians and celebrities been implicated in the paedophile ring, but the authorities apparently knew about it and covered it up for years. Reports first emerged in the 1980s, but police dropped their investigations and officials destroyed documents. The former secretary of state for families, Teresa Costa Macedo, said she received death threats after she notified the police.

The Diario de Noticias warned that if a paedophile “mafia network ... really exists, it is Portuguese democracy which is danger” and the author Antonio Mega Ferreira mourned, “I can’t recall, during the past 25 years of democracy, ever having felt we were going through such a disturbing, frail, demoralising, upsetting time as we are going through now.”

Sampaio himself has called the Casa Pia scandal “a national disgrace” and urged the Portuguese people to keep their faith in the justice system, as has Prime Minister Jose Manuel Durao Barroso, saying, “The Portuguese people want justice to be done. So do I.... As prime minister, I have complete confidence in the Portuguese legal system.”

Rui Fernandes, who sits on the national secretariat of the Portuguese Communist Party, insisted that “the idea of a crisis of the legal system is excessive.”

He accused Durao Barroso’s government of finding it “beneficial to develop this idea of crisis in order to justify deep reforms of the justice system,” including restrictions on “the independence of the judges or placing the Criminal Investigation Department under the direct control of the government.”

There is no doubt that the government has used the scandal to attack the opposition and justify the widespread use of phone tapping (there are nearly 300 pages of transcripts of tapped calls made by Socialist Party leaders, including its leader Ferro Rodrigues), long periods of detention without charge and other repressive measures. A whole debate on “limits on the freedom of the press” has also been opened up, with Durao Barroso saying that as long as journalists “are held to respect the law” the freedom of the press “is crowned and untouchable.”

See related topic - Microchipping Children
http://www.nineeleven.co.uk/board/viewtopic.php?t=10482
Just been forwarded this link to a comprehensive site which looks at the elite paedophile scandal in Belgium which has never been properly investigated - for anyone investigating these low life scumbags this is essential reading.
I suppose this is the sort of topic that should be covereed in The Bigger Picture - since it has such enormous ramifications

http://www.pehi.eu/dutroux/Belgian_X_dossiers_of_the_Dutroux_affair.ht m
"Imagine, everywhere you hear that story about a blackmail dossier in which organizations of the extreme right are in the possession of pictures and videos on which a number of prominent people in and around Brussels have sex with young girls; minors it is said. The existence of this dossier has always been vehemently denied. Until it was proven that testimonies and videos of this affair indeed were in the possession of the police services. An officer of the judicial police (Marnette, H.G.) denied the existence of these videos, while afterwards this person's superior admitted that they did exist, that they were kept with the judicial police in Brussels, but that they were completely worthless. Strange, because this stuff needs to be deposited with the registrar and not be kept in the possession of some police service. Subsequently, examining magistrate Jean-Marie Schlicker confirms that this dossier does indeed exist, but that he wishes not to give any testimonies about it. The at first non-existing dossier turns out to exist. The videos without substance then turn out to be interesting enough after all to be handed over to the examining magistrate tasked with the investigation into the Gang of Nijvel. But this person subsequently is afraid to testify about that! What do you think that has been going on here?"
-September 1989, Congressman Hugo Coveliers, secretary of the special investigating committee tasked with evaluating the way gangsterism and terrorism is combated in Belgium (1988-1990), to Humo magazine (1990, Hugo Gijsels, 'De Bende & Co', p. 133-134). Coveliers became a senator in 1995.

"When I saw in how much trouble he got [sergeant Michel Clippe, who had convinced her to testify] and how my own dossier evolved, I decided to quit. In any case, even back then you could already see how the people surrounding De Baets were collectively being stonewalled. They didn't stand a chance."
- Victim-witness X2, a police officer. Because of her job she recognized many judges and attorneys among her former abusers. Certain names and details were also given by X1 and other witnesses (1999, 'De X-dossiers', p. 321).

Thanks for wading into the world's sickest evil, Tony. Having plumbed the depths of the Bilderbergers, you probably have more idea than most what really goes on behind the scenes. I have been wondering for quite some while why the X-Dossiers have received so little attention on the net until recently. Why should we fear these crazed monsters, really?

From the many people I have talked to in Europe and US, the overall sense I get is a closing of minds of those who cannot cope with the implications of this grossest facet of psychopathy, or do not wish to 'dirty their minds' over such 'unbelievable' behaviour.

Perhaps this is now to be the 'grand' awakening to the utter rottenness at the core of our 'control structures'?

Why is it that paedophilia, in all it's manifest guises, always seems to end up being the 'pervu' of the very rich, the very powerful? Why is it so endemic amongst those chosen to maintain the 'control structure'? The police, the magistrates, the lawyers, the social workers, the organisations set up to protect children run by those very same people who do the most horrendous damage to our youth?

I probably sound like a stuck record but I have become convinced that there is no chance whatsoever of the world becoming a safe and joyous place for the majority until we recognise, and nip in the bud, any signs of psychopathy in those who would lead.

IMO, we should rise above the 'feudalism of the mind' and abolish 'leadership', beyond village groupings of no more than 250 people, altogether.

May all those poor innocents caught up in this widespread but rarely discussed vomit Rest In Peace, for they will never find it on this plane until psychopathy and its craving for control and 'mastery' is entirely eradicated from our societies.

Have you noticed how very weak these vile monsters really are, once exposed? It seems the higher the weaker - yet they cause so much damage largely because decent people cannot bring themselves to admit that there could ever be such a 'problem'. Cannot bring themselves to admit that those chosen to rule us are often those who see humanity as so much meat to be manipulated.

Shall we start listing names? This is a sickness we must all give time to healing daily. I will start the list of those in most acute need of 'healing' and/or restraining.

The Belgian so-called 'royal family', Alberts 1&2, Lippens, Davignon, Boeynants et al. The whole EU Brussels mob that get sucked in to this most vile of fascist vomit.

GHW Bush and the whole so-called Monarch/MKULTRA nonsense and all those blackmailed by him (most of Congress, it would seem!)

Any police, magistrates or lawyers known to have obscured the path to any of the above.

This is the deepest sickness society has ever had to deal with. Yet dealt with it MUST be. To me this is a clear case for citizens to take into their own hands and not rest until this entire pus-laden running sore is expunged.

The alternative? Another plunge into fascism and the world of Heironymus Bosch...

Could the Murdoch Lie Machine and the Casa Pia suspects running the Portuguese police be getting a teeny bit scared?

How on earth can the Portuguese cops ever hope to win a case against the McCanns? They can't.
The criminals in the Portuguese police are getting seriously rattled and the only pimp they can find to tout their wares is good old Rupert.

September 25, 2007
McCanns could face charges over security firmYeah, right - ed.

Kate and Gerry McCann could face criminal charges for using a private security company to investigate the disappearance of their daughter, a senior Portuguese judge has said.

The couple have been secretly receiving advice for more than four months from Control Risks Group, which employs former members of the British intelligence services and special forces.

News of the investigators’ role has led to deep concern amongst the authorities in Portugal, where it is illegal for private detectives to become involved in criminal cases.

A source close to the McCann’s legal team has confirmed the involvement of Control Risks Group but insisted it is simply providing advice on the hunt for Madeleine rather than becoming actively involved in searches in Portugal.

He said: “You can assume that they are doing some things that the Portuguese police can’t do. Nothing illegal is being done in Portugal.”

Antonio Martins, president of the Association of Portuguese Judges, told the 24 Horas newspaper: “It is still up to the state to carry out criminal investigation. That kind of activity has no legal standing. Anything that results from private investigation has no substance.”

The judge said that Mr and Mrs McCann, both 39, from Rothley, Leicestershire, could be charged with “obstruction of justice” if prosecutors find evidence of a parallel investigation. The couple are already official suspects in the disappearance of their daughter from a holiday apartment in Praia da Luz 145 days ago.

A high-ranking officer in the Polícia Judiciaria, which is investigating the disappearance of Madeleine shortly before her fourth birthday, said that the investigators could be arrested if they are found operating in Portugal. “If they come here they will be running a serious risk of being arrested,” he said.

Carlos Anjos, President of the Judicial Police Inspector's Union, accused to Mr and Mrs McCann of using “diversion tactics”. Mr McCann had previously said that they had decided not to use private detectives.

“This is just another McCann strategy who today say one thing and tomorrow something completely contrary,” said Mr Anjos “This can only be another diversion tactic from the McCanns.”

Meanwhile, the only other official suspect in the case yesterday denied a report that he was seen outside the Ocean Club resort on the night Mrs McCann claimed that Madeleine had been abducted from her bed.

Robert Murat, 33, has insisted he was at home with his mother at their villa 100 yards from the resort where Madeleine was staying. Mr Murat later worked as an official translator for the police investigating Madeleine’s disappearance.

Charlotte Pennington, who worked as a nanny in the Ocean Club resort, said: “He was outside the lobby just before we started on our big search.

“He was adamant that he wasn't there. But he was. He was there in the road, he was just looking. It was about 10.30. He was just watching. I didn't know his name then. But the next day he was our interpreter and I met him then. He didn't take part in the searches, but he was there.”

Miss Pennington, 20, from Leatherhead, Surrey, said she was one of the first people to go into the McCann’s two-bedroom apartment and was interviewed by Portuguese detectives for more than four hours.

Mr Murat insisted today: “I certainly was not there that night. She [Miss Pennington] never saw me. At no point that night was I there outside that apartment. I can confirm that I did translate for her but I did not say anything more.”

Mr Murat said that he had not been accused of being seen at the resort by police until three friends who were staying in Praia da Luz with the McCanns returned to Portugal to give evidence against him at the police headquarters in Portimao.

Portuguese police brought together Mr Murat, from Hockering, Norfolk, and Rachael Oldfield, 36, Dr Russell O'Brien, 36, and Dr Fiona Payne, 34, to compare their versions of events on July 12. The friends told Mr Murat that they saw him at the Ocean Club on May 3.

Mr Murat said: “It was the first I heard of it. I don’t know why they don’t look at the people who were outside the apartment that night. They must have a list.”

A Portuguese newspaper claimed yesterday that British sniffer dogs had searched the British homes of the seven friends who were dining with the McCanns while their daughter was allegedly being abducted.

The unconfirmed report in Jornal de Notícias said that a “cadaver” dog had detected the scent of a corpse on clothing in one of the homes. It was claimed that Portuguese prosecutors are to write to the friends asking them to return for more questioning.

A spokeswoman for Leicestershire police, which is leading the British end of the investigation, said: “As the inquiry into the disappearance of Madeleine McCann is a Portuguese police investigation it is not appropriate for us to comment on it.

“Our role is to assist the Portuguese authorities, when and if they request it, with UK based enquiries. But because it is a Portuguese investigation, and because of the judicial system there, we are not able to disclose the nature of those enquires.”

A source, who has knowledge of the Leicestershire police inquiry, told the Evening Standard today that officers thought it unlikely that that the couple would be charged.

Antonio Martins, president of the Association of Portuguese Judges, told the 24 Horas newspaper: “It is still up to the state to carry out criminal investigation. That kind of activity has no legal standing. Anything that results from private investigation has no substance.”

Post-Dutroux, that response alone should ring huge alarm bells and provoke a thorough investigation of Senhor Martins' and his associations' own past, IMO.
.

Brilliant exposee in last Saturday's Daily Mail. The only newspaper in the UK which has bothered to question the Portuguese police's integrity. Yes it's that miserable old eye in the top of the pyramid again.....

When the children at Portugal's most famous orphanage heard the sports car roaring down the driveway, fear swept through the dormitories.

The noise could mean only one thing: the man known as The Doctor was coming to call.

Yet this medical practitioner had no intention of adhering to the ancient Hippocratic Oath.

Instead, arriving at Casa Pia (House of the Pious), a 17th century Lisbon orphanage where more than 4,000 children are cared for each year behind high stone walls, the doctor would summon selected boys and girls from their beds for examinations one night each week.

Where possible, he chose deaf-mutes.

After checking that the children were not suffering from any sexual infections, the doctor was joined by the orphanage caretaker, known as Bibi, who ushered the unfortunate children outside to a waiting van.

With the doctor following in his red Ferrari, Bibi drove the van to the prestigious homes of some of the leading members of Lisbon society - ranging from Portuguese government ministers and high-ranking diplomats, to famous television stars and members of the judiciary.

There, the children were repeatedly sexually abused. Some were allegedly drugged to make them compliant; others were plied with alcohol.

This continued for years. Assaults were filmed; pictures of one attack were subsequently found at the home of a suspected paedophile in Paris.

According to medical records, the victims' injuries were horrific - and consistent with serious sexual assault and rape. In witness statements, many were able to describe in minute detail the homes where they were taken and identifying marks on the bodies of their abusers.

The existence of this so-called "magic circle" of the Portuguese establishment, allegedly involved in an international paedophile ring using boys and girls from Casa Pia, was last week likened to an earthquake waiting to shake Portugal to its foundations.

New allegations about the scale of the network will be put before the country's highest court within the next few weeks.

Amid rumours of links to other paedophile gangs across Europe and the U.S., international experts on child sex crimes and murders are expected to be in court when the case re-opens, four years after a group of victims broke a silence lasting more than 30 years.

But what relevance does this have to the disappearance 170 days ago of four-year-old Madeleine McCann in Praia da Luz, about 280km from Lisbon?

And what does it mean for Kate and Gerry McCann, who have not only had to cope with losing their child, but have also been subjects of a vicious campaign in the Portuguese press to smear them?

It is crucial for two reasons; first because it proves what international crime agencies have long suspected: that Portugal has become a magnet for predatory paedophiles from around the world, using the country's lax laws and preying on the high numbers of poor, abandoned children.

And second, because Paulo Rebelo, an urbane, methodical detective who led the Casa Pia paedophile inquiry, was last night finishing his first week as the new chief of the investigation into the disappearance of the British child.

Rebelo has replaced Goncalo Amaral, the "oafish" local police chief out of his depth in a case that has captured unprecedented world attention, with millions fascinated by the story of the girl snatched from her bed on holiday while her parents ate with friends 200 yards away.

The sight of the sweaty, corpulent Amaral in restaurants and cafes near the Portimao police headquarters had become commonplace since Madeleine disappeared.

While the McCanns were warned repeatedly they faced jail for speaking about the case, he was been overheard, during his daily three-hour lunches of wine and shellfish, accusing the couple of killing their daughter.

In one conversation with Portugal's ex-Formula One racing driver Pedro Lamy, Amaral revealed he was convinced the McCanns drugged their daughter and accidentally killed her. "The police case is we are sure the parents killed Madeleine. They are both doctors and know about drugs.

"We are confident in our case," he said.

In an effort to make up for lost time following Amaral's dismissal, Rebelo has recruited his own men from Lisbon. To the fury of the original officers, he has lost little time in sidelining them, bringing in two child sex experts from the Casa Pia case as well as homicide specialists and computer analysts - known as "the cleaners" due to their reputation for leaving no stone unturned.

According to senior police sources, he also launched a furious private attack on the 100 officers involved in the original inquiry, which he has now cut back to 40.

At a meeting, he accused some officers of having "closed minds" about who was guilty, saying that "pre-conceptions should be challenged".

In addition, he oversaw Operation Predator - raids on more than 70 suspected paedophiles, whose computers were searched last week for images of Madeleine or other evidence of criminal sexual acts. Although by last night Rebelo had failed to make a breakthrough, sources say it is a clear sign, along with reports that Russian child traffickers may be involved, of a strand of his current thinking.

In a Lisbon café, an associate of Rebelo told the Mail: "The Casa Pia case had a deep affect on Paulo. You come across things that are appalling and cruel. But you get a feeling that there are some seriously bad people in the world, and some of them are here. He does not rule anything out."

So, after enduring months of soul-destroying leaks from the Portuguese police - from claims that they drugged Madeleine and then disposed of her body, to allegations that Gerry was not even her real father - the McCanns are no longer the sole focus of the Portuguese police investigation.

But the nightmare goes on. A group of officers loyal to Amaral are still leaking smears to the Portuguese press.

The latest?

That bodily fluids from Madeleine's corpse were found in the boot of the couple's hire care and that "background checks" were to be carried out on Gerry McCann's laptop. And then the police "sources" claimed that Kate killed Madeleine without telling Gerry, and that the body was "refrigerated" before being dumped up to 25 days later.

His career in tatters and now back on desk duties in Faro, Amaral faces a criminal hearing in the case of another missing child, Joana Cipriano, after being accused of concealing evidence that the girl's mother was tortured into confessing to her murder.

Amaral and his colleagues face countless unanswered questions about mistakes in the original police investigation into Maddie's disappearance, such as failing to ensure the McCanns' apartment was sealed off for forensics. (This did not happen until the next day, by which time the McCanns, their friends, resort staff and detectives had traipsed through, destroying potentially vital evidence.)

They also failed to seal off the Mark Warner Ocean Club resort. No roadblocks were set up and police on the Spanish border - two hours' drive away - were not alerted for 12 hours. Staff were only quizzed 60 hours later. And the CCTV footage from a busy main road was never studied. The list of mistakes goes on.

While the shift in the investigation may ease the intolerable pressure on the McCanns, it will do little to console them.

As well as growing fears that Madeleine was abducted by a paedophile ring, they can have little hope of justice when leading Portuguese figures are allegedly involved in covering-up their own child sex scandal.

Both cases - the two highestprofile criminal investigations in the country since the end of the Portuguese military dictatorship in 1974 - have been riven by allegations of compromised police officers, high-level interference and vicious, virulent attacks on key witnesses.

Pedro Namora, a former Casa Pia orphan who witnessed 11 rapes on fellow orphans, during which they were tied to their beds, sympathises with the McCanns. He believes elements in the force have conspired to suppress both scandals, fearing damage to the country's reputation.

"Portugal is a paedophiles' paradise," said Mr Namora, now a lawyer campaigning on behalf of the Casa Pia victims. "If all the names come out, this will be an earthquake in Portugal. There is a massive, sophisticated network at play here - stretching from the government to the judiciary and the police.

"The network is enormous and extremely powerful. There are magistrates, ambassadors, police, politicians - all have procured children from Casa Pia. It is extremely difficult to break this down. These people cover for each other, because if one is arrested, they all are arrested. They don't want anyone to know."

Now 44, Mr Namora watched as friends sank into alcoholism, drug addiction and death after their traumatic childhood experiences at Casa Pia. "I was the only one who made it," he said. "What could I do? I couldn't keep silent."

He has received death threats and warnings about what will happen to his own children, after taking up the case when an orphan called "Joel" approached him, saying prominent paedophiles were using Casa Pia as a "supermarket for children".

Mr Namora has been threatened after fighting on behalf of the abused children he grew up with.

After being telephoned by a stranger offering to pay off his mortgage, he was told the exact movements of his own three children, and warned that they and their father would come to a grisly end unless he shut up.

An open, warm man, Mr Namora makes an unlikely conspiracytheorist-But he believes the case, which he brought to light in 2003, will underscore Portugal's growing attraction for paedophiles, which has seen six children disappear in recent years.

One reason for this attraction is that the law was quietly relaxed last year, ahead of the forthcoming trial, meaning that repeat offences against the same child would merit only a single charge - and a lesser sentence.

In echoes of the McCanns' ordeal, the initial investigation was badly handled when allegations of abuse were first made at Casa Pia in 1982. Carlos Silvino, the man known as Bibi, was linked to rapes and assaults, but police "lost" pictures showing prominent Lisbon politicians with him and the children.

He was only charged after dozens of children came forward in 2003. They also accused Jorge Ritto, a former Portuguese ambassador, of child abuse. Ritto, it transpired, had also once been sent home in disgrace from a posting in Germany after an incident involving a young boy in a park.

The conspiracy did not end there. Teresa Costa Macedo, a former secretary of state for the family, has revealed that she knew about the attacks in the early Eighties - and that she had alerted General Antonio Ramalho Eanes, the then Portuguese president, about the allegations.

Mrs Costa Macedo, who remained silent for two decades after being warned she would be killed if she spoke, now says that the caretaker "was just one element in a huge paedophile network that involved important people in our country. It wasn't just him [the caretaker]. He was a procurer of children for well-known people who range from diplomats and politicians to people linked to the media".

While still a government minister, Costa Macedo handed police "photographs, an account of the methods used to spirit children out of the orphanage and testimonies of a number of children". Many of the photographs were found at ex-ambassador Jorge Ritto's house. Police reportedly found four children locked up who had been missing from Casa Pia.

Under armed guard at a safe house last week, Bibi could count himself a lucky man. He originally faced allegations that he had sexually assaulted more than 600 children. That has since been reduced to 30. Silvino has hinted at the high-level of the conspiracy, saying: "They can't touch me - there are too many people involved."

Following Ritto's arrest, the police questioned Carloz Cruz, known as Portugal's "Mr Television", and Joao Diniz, a high- society doctor and driver of the red Ferrari. The network allegedly went further. Paulo Pedroso, a government minister, was arrested and quizzed about 15 cases of child sexual abuse.

Amid allegations that paedophile networks have become endemic in Portugal - the European police force Interpol has named the country as one of the worst offenders in Europe - there are fears that the Casa Pia scandal will come to eclipse Belgium's notorious Marc Dutroux case, in which the arrest of a notorious paedophile and child murderer revealed a sordid picture of judicial and political corruption.

Of course, the Casa Pia case may have no direct link to the disappearance of Madeleine, but the culture in which such a serious child abuse network was allowed to operate is the same culture that pervades the whole of Portugal. Was it this attitude that led to the bungled initial investigation in the McCann case?

Perhaps the appointment of the man who exposed the Casa Pia scandal will give the parents of Maddie hope that a proper investigation will now discover the truth.

Portuguese police were yesterday said to have put the parents on top of the list of possible suspects WITHOUT seeing UK phone records which could help clear them................In yet ANOTHER blow to the McCanns, police attacked their publicity campaign and the e-fit they issued showing Maddie being carried off. The computer image was produced from evidence given by the couple's friend Jane Tanner, who said she sawa man running away from their holiday apartment with a child in a blanket.

MADDIE PARENTS NEW AGONY 10-month wait to see case against them Judge blocks plan to clear their name Couple blasted over e-fit of 'suspect'
By Dean Rousewell

Maddie McCann's parents face yet more anguish after being warned last night that they could wait 10 MONTHS to see police files on them.

Gerry and Kate were desperately hoping to discover next month exactly why they were made suspects - so they could clear their name.

But they were told it may be NEXT AUGUST before they are allowed access to key papers detailing the probe and accusations against them.

And, agonisingly for the couple, it could be 15 YEARS before the prosecution case is "archived".

The news is a hammer blow to the McCanns' hopes of having their status as arguidos - official suspects - lifted so they can dedicate more time to finding four-year-old Madeleine.

Gerry and Kate, both 39, hoped to see the case files on November 14 under a recent change in Portuguese law.

But investigating judge Pedro Frias has been asked to extend the deadline by giving the case "special complexity" status.

Public prosecutor Jose Magalhaese Meneses wants the files to remain closed to the McCanns because cops are still waiting for full DNA test results.

They also want to quiz the Tapas Nine - the McCanns and their holiday friends - in Britain.

Portuguese police were yesterday said to have put the parents on top of the list of possible suspects WITHOUT seeing UK phone records which could help clear them.

Detectives say they are still waiting for a list of mobile calls the couple made the night Maddie vanished in Praia da Luz.

An insider said: "Portuguese police say it is hampering their investigation.

"But you have to question why they were so quick to jump on the McCanns when they have yet to see something as basic as phone records.

"It could end up leaving them with a lot of egg on their faces."

In yet ANOTHER blow to the McCanns, police union leader Carlos Anjos attacked their publicity campaign and the e-fit they issued showing Maddie being carried off.

The computer image was produced from evidence given by the couple's friend Jane Tanner, who said she sawa man running away from their holiday apartment with a child in a blanket.

The McCanns' spokesman Clarence Mitchell said the picture's release had the "tacit approval" of Portuguese police. But Mr Anjos insisted police had not given the go-ahead.

He told a Portuguese newspaper: "It's a simple doll that anyone could come up with.

"It's no e-fit nor does it have anyone's approval. This simply does not exist." In a scathing criticism of the couple, he added: "The Maddie case is a criminal investigation for the police. For the McCanns it is a case of social communication judging by the campaign they have played out in the media."

The McCanns are understood to be considering installing panic buttons at their home in Rothley, Leics, as police scale down the guard they have mounted since the couple's return seven weeks ago. A source said: "They are worried about security."

Heart specialist Gerry, 39, will return to work on Thursday for the first time since Maddie went missing nearly six months ago.

The investigation into the disappearance of Madeleine McCann was in chaos last night after the detective coordinating the hunt for her abductor was charged with criminal offences over another notorious missing child case.

Goncalo Amaral and four other Portuguese police officers were charged over the weekend with offences relating to the inquiry into the disappearance of Joana Cipriano from a village seven miles from where Madeleine was abducted.

The nine-year-old girl has not been seen since her disappearance three years ago but her mother and uncle were convicted of murdering and dismembering Joana because she caught them having an incestuous relationship. Joana’s mother, Leonor, has alleged that she was beaten into a confession during a police interrogation that took place without her lawyer or the knowledge of the public prosecutor.

Portugal’s Ministerio Publico, the district attorney, confirmed last night that it had charged three police officers with torture, a fourth with omission of evidence and a fifth with falsification of documents. It did not reveal who had been charged with which offence.................

see also

Quote:

.....He enjoyed frequent three-hour boozy lunches and two days ago a British newspaper claimed he worked only four hours a day and had ignored most of the 252 possible sightings and tip-offs in the case. He is also facing a criminal hearing over another missing girl, Joana Cipriano, accused of concealing evidence that the girl's mother, Leonor, was beaten into confessing to her murder.

Mr Amaral came under pressure to step down from the McCann investigation after it emerged he could face trial over the accusations, but he refused to resign.

The former director of a Portuguese children's home at the centre of a sex scandal says abuse is still taking place there. Catalina Pestana, who retired from the post in May, made the claim in the Portuguese magazine Sol. A number of high-profile personalities have been accused of involvement in paedophile offences at Casa Pia.
Pestana, who took over the school after the scandal erupted in 2002, says she passed on information to the chief prosecutor in the case. He has confirmed he received a new complaint from Pestana and that her claim was being studied. The accused include another former Casa Pia director, a TV presenter, and an ex-diplomat. It is alleged the school for disadvantaged children had been the centre of a paedophile network from the 1970s.

The former head of Casa Pia institution, Catalina Pestana, said this Saturday in an interview with Sol that she believes the pedophile case involving former students of the institution has taken so long in court because 'it was necessary' to change the law and make sentences more lenient.

Catalina Pestana spoke about the new Penal Code and Penal Procedure Code which have come into effect as of September 15.

In the second interview the former head of Casa Pia has agreed to do she was asked what she thought of a trial that had dragged on for three years. Catalina said: 'It's going to take even longer and I've only just understood why. It was necessary for the new Penal Code to come into effect, whose Article 30, as many legal experts have said, was tailor made for the Casa Pia trial.'

'Before, when there was a case of sex abuse, the number of times the victim was abused had to be taken into account; with the present Penal Code a continuous crime of sex abuse counts as a single crime. Now I understand why it was taking so long, why the court allowed for endless and repeated questioning,' she said.

She added: 'I myself was present at hearings for almost three months and the lawyers asked me the same questions three, four, five times. The same thing happened to the victims.'

'But those penal codes were approved by both the Socialists and the Social Democrats. What do you make of that?' asked the interviewers, Ana Paula Azevedo and Felicia Cabrita.

'That's one of the things that bothered me the most. I'm not a legal expert. I was only aware of the seriousness of what was happening when I heard some of the comments made by the experts. They all agree that this isn't a question of ideology or academic thinking but of political issues,' replied Catalina Pestana.

He added: 'If you asked me how two parties came to an agreement on this I'd say there was a Pact for Justice in place, and besides that, the difference between the two parties at this point in time would have to be looked at with a microscope...'

'As for oppositions, my feeling is that this vote goes beyond the sphere of parties and that some changes have been headed by people in a ... more discreet organisation,' said Catalina Pestana.

Asked whether she was referring to Freemasonry, Catalina expalined her thinking.

'Your director, Jose Antonio Saraiva, in an article that he wrote, was the first person to say that many cases linked to Casa Pia were the fallout from wars between freemasons. Even so, I wouldn't talk about Freemasonry, but certain sectors of the Freemasons. They are not a criminal association but they do have a twisted defect - they cover each other's backs,' said the former head of the institution.

'If all the parties think they have a very good Penal Code and Penal Procedure Code, then it is up to people in society to organise themselves to protect at least those who don't have a grown up to stick up for them,' stressed Catalina Pestana, announcing that in January a Network of Carers would be launched to defend children who are victims of abuse.

The idea of the Network of Carers she said 'comes from what happened at Casa Pia - against a network of abusers you have to have a network of carers.'

'You said that the truth about Casa Pia was like an earthquake. How powerful was this earthquake?'

Catalina said: 'About seven on the Richter scale. When the history of this case is written up everyone will see that if the laws had been put in place to allow an investigation into everything that I have said the earthquake would have had devastating consequences.'

Asked whether she wanted to 'blow the whistle' on the people allegedly involved in acts of pedophilia with students of Casa Pia, Catalina Pestana said: 'When that happens I won't be around. I'll leave that to the people who survive me and can publish this, in 25 years, according to the law.'

Neat summary by an indpendent researcher in Sussex of the entire casa pia affair - also attached asa word document

This Casa Pia research to follow may seem a bit disjointed - this is because it is extracted from emails I sent to someone who was trying to help on the Madelaine Mccann case.

I attach here all the articles that caught my eye and highlighted important information in red.

Names so far:
Carlos Cruz – TV personality
Carlos Silvino (already in jail?)
Manuel Abrantes, a former director of Casa Pia;
Joao Ferreira Diniz, a doctor at Casa Pia;
Jorge Ritto, a former ambassador to UNESCO;
Hugo Marcal, Carlos Silvino's former attorney;
Eduardo Ferro Rodrigues, Portugal's Socialist Party leader;
Herman Jose television talk show host
Paulo Pedroso, a former Labour minister
Francisco Alves, a prominent archeologist,
Gertrudes Nunes, a 61-year-old woman who owns a country villa where some of the abuse allegedly took place..

On bass level, Casa Pia is related in that it simply demonstrates Portugal’s complacency regarding sexual offenders in their country. This is probably because of the level of diplomats associated with the Casa Pia case and this has been going on for 30 years or so, I think it has been well a established secret network of child abuse.

Casa Pia touches a raw nerve and most people are too scared to talk about it. Gagging orders seem to be the case and you will read that a journalist got into a lot of trouble for talking about it.

If you were in the police force and diplomatic people of your country were implicated in a case such as this, I guess the same police force might be scared to reveal how deep this problem goes in Portugal. So far Casa pia seems to involve a priest, a doctor, a couple of high level diplomats and a TV personality.

British Article about Casa Pia
Why Portugal is a haven for paedophiles - the disturbing backcloth to the Madeleine case
By ANDREW MALONE and VANESSA ALLEN – Last updated at 01:07am on 20th October 2007 A ferrari engine makes a deep, distinctive sound.
When the children at Portugal's most famous orphanage heard the sports car roaring down the driveway, fear swept through the dormitories.
The noise could mean only one thing: the man known as The Doctor was coming to call.
Yet this medical practitioner had no intention of adhering to the ancient Hippocratic Oath.
Instead, arriving at Casa Pia (House of the Pious), a 17th century Lisbon orphanage where more than 4,000 children are cared for each year behind high stone walls, the doctor would summon selected boys and girls from their beds for examinations one night each week.
Where possible, he chose deaf-mutes.
After checking that the children were not suffering from any sexual infections, the doctor was joined by the orphanage caretaker, known as Bibi, who ushered the unfortunate children outside to a waiting van.
With the doctor following in his red Ferrari, Bibi drove the van to the prestigious homes of some of the leading members of Lisbon society - ranging from Portuguese government ministers and high-ranking diplomats, to famous television stars and members of the judiciary.
Normal life: Kate and Gerry McCann try to live normally for the sake of their twins Sean and Amelie
There, the children were repeatedly sexually abused. Some were allegedly drugged to make them compliant; others were plied with alcohol.
This continued for years. Assaults were filmed; pictures of one attack were subsequently found at the home of a suspected paedophile in Paris.
According to medical records, the victims' injuries were horrific - and consistent with serious sexual assault and rape. In witness statements, many were able to describe in minute detail the homes where they were taken and identifying marks on the bodies of their abusers.
The existence of this so-called "magic circle" of the Portuguese establishment, allegedly involved in an international paedophile ring using boys and girls from Casa Pia, was last week likened to an earthquake waiting to shake Portugal to its foundations.
New allegations about the scale of the network will be put before the country's highest court within the next few weeks.
Amid rumours of links to other paedophile gangs across Europe and the U.S., international experts on child sex crimes and murders are expected to be in court when the case re-opens, four years after a group of victims broke a silence lasting more than 30 years.
But what relevance does this have to the disappearance 170 days ago of four-year-old Madeleine McCann in Praia da Luz, about 280km from Lisbon?
And what does it mean for Kate and Gerry McCann, who have not only had to cope with losing their child, but have also been subjects of a vicious campaign in the Portuguese press to smear them?
It is crucial for two reasons; first because it proves what international crime agencies have long suspected: that Portugal has become a magnet for predatory paedophiles from around the world, using the country's lax laws and preying on the high numbers of poor, abandoned children.
And second, because Paulo Rebelo, an urbane, methodical detective who led the Casa Pia paedophile inquiry, was last night finishing his first week as the new chief of the investigation into the disappearance of the British child.
Rebelo has replaced Goncalo Amaral, the "oafish" local police chief out of his depth in a case that has captured unprecedented world attention, with millions fascinated by the story of the girl snatched from her bed on holiday while her parents ate with friends 200 yards away.
The sight of the sweaty, corpulent Amaral in restaurants and cafes near the Portimao police headquarters had become commonplace since Madeleine disappeared.
While the McCanns were warned repeatedly they faced jail for speaking about the case, he was been overheard, during his daily three-hour lunches of wine and shellfish, accusing the couple of killing their daughter.
In one conversation with Portugal's ex-Formula One racing driver Pedro Lamy, Amaral revealed he was convinced the McCanns drugged their daughter and accidentally killed her. "The police case is we are sure the parents killed Madeleine. They are both doctors and know about drugs.
"We are confident in our case," he said.
In an effort to make up for lost time following Amaral's dismissal, Rebelo has recruited his own men from Lisbon. To the fury of the original officers, he has lost little time in sidelining them, bringing in two child sex experts from the Casa Pia case as well as homicide specialists and computer analysts - known as "the cleaners" due to their reputation for leaving no stone unturned.
According to senior police sources, he also launched a furious private attack on the 100 officers involved in the original inquiry, which he has now cut back to 40.

At a meeting, he accused some officers of having "closed minds" about who was guilty, saying that "pre-conceptions should be challenged".
In addition, he oversaw Operation Predator - raids on more than 70 suspected paedophiles, whose computers were searched last week for images of Madeleine or other evidence of criminal sexual acts. Although by last night Rebelo had failed to make a breakthrough, sources say it is a clear sign, along with reports that Russian child traffickers may be involved, of a strand of his current thinking.
In a Lisbon café, an associate of Rebelo told the Mail: "The Casa Pia case had a deep affect on Paulo. You come across things that are appalling and cruel. But you get a feeling that there are some seriously bad people in the world, and some of them are here. He does not rule anything out."
So, after enduring months of soul-destroying leaks from the Portuguese police - from claims that they drugged Madeleine and then disposed of her body, to allegations that Gerry was not even her real father - the McCanns are no longer the sole focus of the Portuguese police investigation.
But the nightmare goes on. A group of officers loyal to Amaral are still leaking smears to the Portuguese press.
The latest?
That bodily fluids from Madeleine's corpse were found in the boot of the couple's hire care and that "background checks" were to be carried out on Gerry McCann's laptop. And then the police "sources" claimed that Kate killed Madeleine without telling Gerry, and that the body was "refrigerated" before being dumped up to 25 days later.
His career in tatters and now back on desk duties in Faro, Amaral faces a criminal hearing in the case of another missing child, Joana Cipriano, after being accused of concealing evidence that the girl's mother was tortured into confessing to her murder.
Amaral and his colleagues face countless unanswered questions about mistakes in the original police investigation into Maddie's disappearance, such as failing to ensure the McCanns' apartment was sealed off for forensics. (This did not happen until the next day, by which time the McCanns, their friends, resort staff and detectives had traipsed through, destroying potentially vital evidence.)
They also failed to seal off the Mark Warner Ocean Club resort. No roadblocks were set up and police on the Spanish border - two hours' drive away - were not alerted for 12 hours. Staff were only quizzed 60 hours later. And the CCTV footage from a busy main road was never studied. The list of mistakes goes on.
While the shift in the investigation may ease the intolerable pressure on the McCanns, it will do little to console them.
As well as growing fears that Madeleine was abducted by a paedophile ring, they can have little hope of justice when leading Portuguese figures are allegedly involved in covering-up their own child sex scandal.
Both cases - the two highestprofile criminal investigations in the country since the end of the Portuguese military dictatorship in 1974 - have been riven by allegations of compromised police officers, high-level interference and vicious, virulent attacks on key witnesses.
Pedro Namora, a former Casa Pia orphan who witnessed 11 rapes on fellow orphans, during which they were tied to their beds, sympathises with the McCanns. He believes elements in the force have conspired to suppress both scandals, fearing damage to the country's reputation.
"Portugal is a paedophiles' paradise," said Mr Namora, now a lawyer campaigning on behalf of the Casa Pia victims. "If all the names come out, this will be an earthquake in Portugal. There is a massive, sophisticated network at play here - stretching from the government to the judiciary and the police.
"The network is enormous and extremely powerful. There are magistrates, ambassadors, police, politicians - all have procured children from Casa Pia. It is extremely difficult to break this down. These people cover for each other, because if one is arrested, they all are arrested. They don't want anyone to know."
Now 44, Mr Namora watched as friends sank into alcoholism, drug addiction and death after their traumatic childhood experiences at Casa Pia. "I was the only one who made it," he said. "What could I do? I couldn't keep silent."
He has received death threats and warnings about what will happen to his own children, after taking up the case when an orphan called "Joel" approached him, saying prominent paedophiles were using Casa Pia as a "supermarket for children".
Mr Namora has been threatened after fighting on behalf of the abused children he grew up with.
After being telephoned by a stranger offering to pay off his mortgage, he was told the exact movements of his own three children, and warned that they and their father would come to a grisly end unless he shut up.
An open, warm man, Mr Namora makes an unlikely conspiracy theorist-But he believes the case, which he brought to light in 2003, will underscore Portugal's growing attraction for paedophiles, which has seen six children disappear in recent years.
One reason for this attraction is that the law was quietly relaxed last year, ahead of the forthcoming trial, meaning that repeat offences against the same child would merit only a single charge - and a lesser sentence.
In echoes of the McCanns' ordeal, the initial investigation was badly handled when allegations of abuse were first made at Casa Pia in 1982. Carlos Silvino, the man known as Bibi, was linked to rapes and assaults, but police "lost" pictures showing prominent Lisbon politicians with him and the children.
He was only charged after dozens of children came forward in 2003. They also accused Jorge Ritto, a former Portuguese ambassador, of child abuse. Ritto, it transpired, had also once been sent home in disgrace from a posting in Germany after an incident involving a young boy in a park.
The conspiracy did not end there. Teresa Costa Macedo, a former secretary of state for the family, has revealed that she knew about the attacks in the early Eighties - and that she had alerted General Antonio Ramalho Eanes, the then Portuguese president, about the allegations.
Mrs Costa Macedo, who remained silent for two decades after being warned she would be killed if she spoke, now says that the caretaker "was just one element in a huge paedophile network that involved important people in our country. It wasn't just him [the caretaker]. He was a procurer of children for well-known people who range from diplomats and politicians to people linked to the media".
While still a government minister, Costa Macedo handed police "photographs, an account of the methods used to spirit children out of the orphanage and testimonies of a number of children". Many of the photographs were found at ex-ambassador Jorge Ritto's house. Police reportedly found four children locked up who had been missing from Casa Pia.
Under armed guard at a safe house last week, Bibi could count himself a lucky man. He originally faced allegations that he had sexually assaulted more than 600 children. That has since been reduced to 30. Silvino has hinted at the high-level of the conspiracy, saying: "They can't touch me - there are too many people involved."
Following Ritto's arrest, the police questioned Carloz Cruz, known as Portugal's "Mr Television", and Joao Diniz, a high- society doctor and driver of the red Ferrari. The network allegedly went further. Paulo Pedroso, a government minister, was arrested and quizzed about 15 cases of child sexual abuse.
Amid allegations that paedophile networks have become endemic in Portugal - the European police force Interpol has named the country as one of the worst offenders in Europe - there are fears that the Casa Pia scandal will come to eclipse Belgium's notorious Marc Dutroux case, in which the arrest of a notorious paedophile and child murderer revealed a sordid picture of judicial and political corruption.
Of course, the Casa Pia case may have no direct link to the disappearance of Madeleine, but the culture in which such a serious child abuse network was allowed to operate is the same culture that pervades the whole of Portugal. Was it this attitude that led to the bungled initial investigation in the McCann case?
Perhaps the appointment of the man who exposed the Casa Pia scandal will give the parents of Maddie hope that a proper investigation will now discover the truth.

Daily Mirror Wed 10th Oct 2007
"Highly respected Mr Rebelo made his name at the drug squads in Lisbon and Porto before leading Portugals' armed robbery unit, the counter-terrorism team and probing allegations of a child sex ring at a state-run children's home"**

Ricardo Sá Fernandes fala em contradições no último depoimento da ex-secretária de Estado da Família.
The defense of Carlos Cruz considered, this Monday, need to hear other leaders on photographs seized in the house of the diplomat Jorge Ritto, in the 80s, after hearing of the ex-ruler Teresa Costa Macedo Ricardo Sá Fernandes speaks in contradictions on the last testimony of ex-secretary of state for the family.

Considerando que o depoimento hoje prestado pela antiga secretária de Estado da Família revela contradições com anteriores declarações e não esclarece o mistério das fotografias, a defesa de Carlos Cruz requereu a audição em tribunal de Joaquim Pignatelli Videira, que foi chefe de gabinete de Teresa Costa Macedo na década de 80. Whereas the evidence provided today by the former Secretary of State for Family reveals inconsistencies with previous statements and not explained the mystery of the photographs, the defense of Carlos Cruz requested the hearing in court, Joaquim Pignatelli Videira, who was head of office of Teresa Costa Macedo in the decade of 80. Ricardo Sá Fernandes, advogado do arguido Carlos Cruz, solicitou ainda ao colectivo de juízes a audição em julgamento de dois educadores que, em 1982, se deslocaram ao apartamento do embaixador Jorge Ritto, em Cascais, onde foram localizados dois alunos casapianos que tinham desaparecido. Ricardo Sá Fernandes, lawyer of the defendant Carlos Cruz, also called the collective of judges hearing in the trial of two educators who, in 1982, went to the apartment of Ambassador Jorge Ritto in Cascais, where two students were located casapianos who had disappeared

The Casa Pia child sex abuse trial continued in 2006. In January, the newspaper 24 Horas reported that telephone records of many politicians, including those of Attorney General Jose Souto de Moura and President Jorge Sampaio, had been examined as part of the case. As a result, on 28 February, an investigative criminal court in Lisbon ordered the confiscation of journalists’ computers from 24 Horas.

The protection of sources became an issue in Portugal when a court rejected the journalists’ appeal to stop the courts from examining their computers. The journalists based their argument on their right to protect their sources. According to RSF, on 6 April, the court of appeals allowed the courts to examine the computers of two journalists from the daily newspaper.

On 18 February, authorities, who had a court order, confiscated the laptop computers of Eduardo Oliveira and Jorge Van Krieken, in order to analyse them. The journalists plan to appeal to the Supreme Court. They also lodged a second appeal, after searches were made at the newspaper and at the home of Van Krieken, who was freelancing for 24 Horas.

Reportedly, this is part of an investigation into a high-level child-sex-abuse scandal, which was almost complete. The two journalists are being prosecuted for publishing the telephone numbers of public figures who may have been investigated in connection with the case.

The Casa Pia sex abuse scandal started in 2002, when the Portuguese press first began reporting sexual abuse allegations by children, who were in the Casa Pia network of homes. The paedophilia trials began in 2003. Casa Pia homes are public institutions that house several thousand orphans, as well as abandoned and troubled children. These cases of abuse reportedly started in the 1970s. In 2004, 53 journalists were summonsed for "violating legal confidentiality rules" in the Casa Pia child sex abuse trial by the Lisbon Public Prosecutor’s Office.

My Coment:
More journalist seem to have gone down for talking than people involved in the case? Is this not a bit twisted – must have been a very ‘hot’ VIP list.
Horas issue 24, 9Tth January 2006

The former head of Casa Pia institution, Catalina Pestana, said this Saturday in an interview with Sol that she believes the pedophile case involving former students of the institution has taken so long in court because 'it was necessary' to change the law and make sentences more lenient.
Catalina Pestana spoke about the new Penal Code and Penal Procedure Code which have come into effect as of September 15.

In the second interview the former head of Casa Pia has agreed to do she was asked what she thought of a trial that had dragged on for three years. Catalina said: 'It's going to take even longer and I've only just understood why. It was necessary for the new Penal Code to come into effect, whose Article 30, as many legal experts have said, was tailor made for the Casa Pia trial.'

'Before, when there was a case of sex abuse, the number of times the victim was abused had to be taken into account; with the present Penal Code a continuous crime of sex abuse counts as a single crime. Now I understand why it was taking so long, why the court allowed for endless and repeated questioning,' she said.

She added: 'I myself was present at hearings for almost three months and the lawyers asked me the same questions three, four, five times. The same thing happened to the victims.'

'But those penal codes were approved by both the Socialists and the Social Democrats. What do you make of that?' asked the interviewers, Ana Paula Azevedo and Felícia Cabrita.

'That's one of the things that bothered me the most. I'm not a legal expert. I was only aware of the seriousness of what was happening when I heard some of the comments made by the experts. They all agree that this isn't a question of ideology or academic thinking but of political issues,' replied Catalina Pestana.
He added: 'If you asked me how two parties came to an agreement on this I'd say there was a Pact for Justice in place, and besides that, the difference between the two parties at this point in time would have to be looked at with a microscope...'

'As for oppositions, my feeling is that this vote goes beyond the sphere of parties and that some changes have been headed by people in a ... more discreet organisation,' said Catalina Pestana.

Asked whether she was referring to Freemasonry, Catalina expalined her thinking.

'Your director, José António Saraiva, in an article that he wrote, was the first person to say that many cases linked to Casa Pia were the fallout from wars between freemasons. Even so, I wouldn't talk about Freemasonry, but certain sectors of the Freemasons. They are not a criminal association but they do have a twisted defect - they cover each other's backs,' said the former head of the institution.

'If all the parties think they have a very good Penal Code and Penal Procedure Code, then it is up to people in society to organise themselves to protect at least those who don't have a grown up to stick up for them,' stressed Catalina Pestana, announcing that in January a Network of Carers would be launched to defend children who are victims of abuse.

The idea of the Network of Carers she said 'comes from what happened at Casa Pia - against a network of abusers you have to have a network of carers.'

'You said that the truth about Casa Pia was like an earthquake. How powerful was this earthquake?'

Catalina said: 'About seven on the Richter scale. When the history of this case is written up everyone will see that if the laws had been put in place to allow an investigation into everything that I have said the earthquake would have had devastating consequences.'

Asked whether she wanted to 'blow the whistle' on the people allegedly involved in acts of pedophilia with students of Casa Pia, Catalina Pestana said: 'When that happens I won't be around. I'll leave that to the people who survive me and can publish this, in 25 years, according to the law.'

Catalina Pestana said she would leave that list of names 'with someone of absolute trust.'

Published: December 17, 2004
The first suspect to go on trial in a case of sex abuse in state orphanages admitted his guilt and said his co-defendants were also guilty. Carlos Silvino, 48, a former driver at Casa Pia, a network of 10 homes and schools that look after 4,000 children, said he himself, a former Casa Pia inmate, had been raped ''virtually every evening'' from the age of 4 to 13, particularly by ''two teachers, two educators, five older students and a priest.'' In September 2002 the mother of a boy who attended a Casa Pia school told the police her son had been raped by Mr. Silvino, who is charged with 634 offenses and is suspected of procuring children for wealthy child molesters for more than 20 years. The other defendants include a television star and a retired ambassador.

Re: Casa Pia – gives a good outline of what was going on there. Extracts only.
http://64.233.183.104/search?q=cache:HZ4cqdq7jl0J:www.the7thfire.com/P olitics%2520and%2520History/Pedophocracy/child_sexual_abuse_in_Brussel s.htm+jorge+ritto,+apartment,+cascais&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1&client=safari
On November 27, 2002, The Guardian reported that many among Portugal's elite were linked to a pedophile ring as well: "A scandal over a paedophile ring run from a state orphanage gripped Portugal yesterday as it threatened to engulf diplomats, media personalities and senior politicians. Photographs of unnamed senior government officials with young boys from Lisbon's Casa Pia orphanage were among the evidence reportedly available to police after they arrested a former orphanage employee called Carlos Silvino." One revelation in the case was "that systematic sexual abuse of children at the home had allegedly been going on for more than 20 years and had been known to police and other authorities for most of that time." Teresa Costa Macedo, a former secretary of state for families, has said that she sent a dossier to police twenty years ago containing "damning proof" of the abuse, including photographs and eyewitness statements. The information was not acted upon, and, for her trouble, Macedo became the victim of a campaign of threats and intimidation.
In June 2003, the Independent reported that police "at first denied her reports existed," but then later produced them. Macedo has testified before parliament that the former president, Antonio Ramalho Eanes, the former foreign secretary, Jaime Garcia, and elements within the police all knew of the ongoing abuse. An official report claims that, "among the children still living at Casa Pia, at least 128 had been subjected to sexual abuse. Many are deaf and dumb." Countless other victims have passed through the facility over the last thirty years. Among those detained or questioned in the case were Carlos Cruz, known in Portugal as "Mr. Television"; Manuel Abrantes, a former director of Casa Pia; Joao Ferreira Diniz, a doctor at Casa Pia; Jorge Ritto, a former ambassador to UNESCO; Hugo Marcal, Carlos Silvino's former attorney; Eduardo Ferro Rodrigues, Portugal's Socialist Party leader; television talk show host Herman Jose; and Paulo Pedroso, a former Labour minister.
A follow-up report in the Independent noted that Casa Pia, founded by a police superintendent, first "came under scrutiny 20 years ago when a young inmate died . Officials found the home's doors open all night and youngsters in a cruising area for male prostitutes. Four children aged between eight and 12, missing for a fortnight, were found in a luxury flat in nearby Cascais owned by a diplomat." That diplomat was Jorge Ritto. It is now alleged that Silvino, an employee and former resident of Casa Pia, acted for years to procure young boys for rich and powerful pedophiles, including Ritto. Adolescent witnesses have claimed on Portuguese television that they were offered enticements and "then raped . and recruited for sex parties with powerful 'friends.' Others, now adult, have told of chilling experiences long suppressed." A Portuguese organization calling itself Innocence in Danger has been working for years to publicize the problem of child abuse and child abductions in the country, but have been unable to penetrate what they describe as a "media blackout."

Carlos Silvino (Bibi) voltou ontem a envolver Carlos Cruz à produção de filmes pedófilos com alunos da instituição que terão decorrido entre 1985 e 1987 num armazém em Fetais, concelho de Loures. Carlos Silvino (Bibi) returned yesterday to involve Carlos Cruz for the production of films with pedophiles students of the institution that will have elapsed between 1985 and 1987 in a warehouse in Fetal, county of Loures. O principal arguido do processo afirmou na 39ª sessão do julgamento da Casa Pia, que viu por "duas vezes" Carlos Mota e Alberto Marques, um ex-funcionário da RTP, na instituição a irem buscar rapazes e que ambos trabalhavam para o apresentador. The main defendant of the case stated in 39 th session of the trial of Casa Pia, which he saw as "twice" Mota and Carlos Alberto Marques, a former official of the RTP, in the institution to go find that both boys and worked for the presenter. Ricardo Sá Fernandes reagiu, requerendo que os alunos que Bibi identificou sejam inquiridos pelo tribunal de modo a "demonstrar que Carlos Silvino falta à verdade". Ricardo Sá Fernandes responded by requiring that students who are identified Bibi respondents by the court in order to "demonstrate that Carlos Silvino lacking in truth."

A ligação de Carlos Cruz a um alegado esquema de produção de filmes com alunos da Casa Pia não é, propriamente, nova no julgamento. The connection of Carlos Cruz in an alleged scheme for the production of movies with students of Casa Pia is not proper, in the new trial. Já durante a 26ª sessão, José Maria Martins, advogado de Bibi, tinha questionado o apresentador se era ou não "verdade que o arguido utilizava ou não um armazém em Fetais para a produção de filmes". Already during the 26th session, José Maria Martins, lawyer of Bibi, had asked the presenter whether it was or not "true that the defendant used or not a warehouse in Fetal for the production of films." Carlos Cruz respondeu negativamente. Carlos Cruz replied negatively.

Ontem, acabou por ser Carlos Silvino a relatar o que terá visto nos anos que referenciou. Yesterday, was eventually Carlos Silvino the report which will have seen in the years that reference. Garantiu que viu, uma vez que trabalhava como jardineiro, Carlos Mota e Alberto Marques a "dirigirem-se ao portão e cá fora estavam umas carrinhas à espera". Secured that saw since worked as a gardener, Carlos Alberto Marques Mota and the "go to the gate and there was some vans were waiting." Depois de citar alguns apelidos de alunos que terão participado nas "filmagens", como referiu, Bibi acrescentou que o "prémio" oferecido aos alunos passava por "andarem numa pista de Karting". After a few names of students who have participated in "movie", as mentioned, Bibi added that the "premium" offered to pupils passed by "a andarem Karting track."

Child protection campaigners have alleged that a culture of corruption and complacency in Portugal is allowing such kidnappings to continue unabated. The founder of the Switzerland-based group Innocents in Danger has said that she had tried to set up an office in Portugal but gave up because of the reluctance of the authorities. Homayra Sellier said after Madeleine's disappearance last week that Portugal was a country in which "the corruption has gone so high that there's nothing we can do". "The fact that the girl [Madeleine] was kidnapped from her bed shows how bad things are."
Casa Pia

don’t know who this is but relates to the case

casa pia building

Carlos (caretaker known as bibi)

Portugal child sex trial begins 11/25/04 "The trial of seven people accused of forming a child sex ring in Portuguese care homes has begun in Lisbon. The accused include a TV presenter, a former top diplomat, and a former director of the Casa Pia children's home network. Abuse at Casa Pia is said to have started in the mid-1970s, but was only discovered in 2002. About 700 witnesses and 32 alleged victims, some of them under 16 years old, are due to testify in the case." "A former director of Casa Pia, Manuel Abrantes, is also on trial. A woman, Gertrudes Nunes, is accused of providing her house to be used for abuse. But a Portuguese judge threw out the cases against ex-government minister Paulo Pedroso, TV comedian Herman Jose and archaeologist Francisco Alves." http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4040733.stm
Major paedophile trial opens By Levi Fernandes in Lisbon 11/26/04 "Seven people, including a popular TV star and a former diplomat, went on trial over a high-profile child abuse scandal in Portugal today, facing charges that include the sexual abuse of minors in a network of state-run children's homes." ""Among those standing trial are Jorge Ritto, a former Portuguese ambassador to South Africa; Carlos Cruz, a television presenter whose career spans over three decades; and a former director of Casa Pia, Manuel Abrantes. The seven, including one woman, face charges ranging from child sexual abuse to procurement and rape involving 32 victims, with the former driver of the childrens' homes, Carlos Silvino, alone facing 600 different charges." http://www.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,4057,11504230%5E1702,00.htm l
Child rapist implicates six co-accused 12/18/04 Lisbon "The chief accused in a high-profile trial of seven people charged in Portugal with sexual abuse of minors from a state-run institution has admitted his guilt on the witness stand and confirmed the charges against his co-defendants. "I, along with the other defendants, am guilty of what is listed in the indictment," said Carlos Silvino, 48, a former driver at Casa Pia, a 224-year-old network of 10 homes and schools that care for about 4000 children...."Rapes of younger children were frequent in all colleges of Casa Pia," he said....The subsequent investigation uncovered claims of decades of sexual abuse at the Lisbon-based institution. Most of the abuse was alleged on boys aged between 12 and 16. A 62-year-old woman is also among the seven accused. She is has been charged with providing her home as a venue for some of the crimes. The case has shattered public trust in the authorities, especially after reports that children had been complaining of the abuse since the mid-1970s, but no action was taken. Silvino, who is charged with 634 offences, including 598 counts of sexual abuse of minors, is also accused of procuring children for wealthy child molesters for more than 20 years. "I took some boys to these homes. I have dates and addresses where they went to make movies, attend parties or sex orgies," he said." http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,11720238 %5E2703,00.html

http://www.tpuc.org/node/34
Police also discovered links between British Labour government paedophile suspects and the trafficking of children for purposes of prostitution from Belgium and Portugal (including young boys from the Casa Pia orphanage in Portugal).

Cavaco Silva receives anonymous letter regarding Casa Pia

PORTUGUESE PRESIDENT Cavaco Silva has handed the Procurator-General an anonymous letter containing accusations of sexual abuse at the Casa Pia children’s home.

The letter, signed by ‘Ordinary People’ and posted from Badajoz, denounces various crimes of a sexual nature allegedly committed in a house in Elvas belonging to one of the material witnesses in the case, Gertrude Nunes.

In the letter, the anonymous writer claims that various defendants, and other public figures linked to the PS party, went to the house to engage in underage sex with minors from the state-run orphanage.

Cavaco Silva has handed the letter to the Procurator-General or Chief Prosecutor, Pinto Monteiro who in turn has submitted the letter to Prosecutor João Aibéu who is responsible for putting the Casa Piacase together.

The letter has been severely criticised by the defendants’ defence team who claim that an anonymous letter cannot be used as proof in a court case.

The new President of Casa Pia, Joaquina Madeira, has denied all knowledge of the existence of further cases of sexual abuse linked to the institution following salacious reports and sensational accusations made by former President Catalina Pestana in weekly broadsheet newspaper ‘Sol.’

On Friday Joaquina Madeira flatly denied knowledge of further abuses in a meeting with the PGR and also said that Catalina Pestana had forwarded further denouncements to the Ministério Público one day prior to her leaving her post at Casa Pia.

Catalina Pestana allegedly told the PGR about the existence of a further house in Lisbon where various individuals had booked sex sessions with Casa Pia pupils.

One of those referred to in the denouncement is already a defendant in the paedophile case being judged at a court in Monsanto.

A former Casa Pia pupil had apparently groomed and enlisted juveniles from the Maria Pia College in Lisbon, for the express purpose of being sexually abused by adults.

Joaquina Madeira claims she had no knowledge of the detailed list of accusations in a letter sent by Catalina Pestana to the Ministério Publico

The couple who raised the alarm about paedophile Ray Hewlett told yesterday how detectives who interviewed them asked: “Do you still have his mobile number.”

Alan and Cindy Thompson were questioned for three hours at the weekend by officers from Leicestershire Police’s Madeleine McCann task force.

Cindy, who handed over the foreign number, said yesterday: “The detective who interviewed me asked for Ray’s number. He didn’t say what they’ll do with it, I just hope it helps in some way.”

Officers could use the number to access phone company records dating back to May 3, 2007, the day Madeleine vanished from the Portuguese resort of Praia da Luz.

The records will show which mobile phone masts Hewlett’s phone connected to on specific dates.

The information may help officers track Hewlett’s movements the night Madeleine went missing and over the following days.

Alan said the detective who spoke to him was keen for information about the dilapidated Dodge truck Hewlett was driving at the time Madeleine vanished and which he later took to Morocco.

Alan said: “The officer asked what sort of truck it was and where I thought it was now. I told him it was a very distinctive blue Dodge truck with English plates, maybe beginning with a D or a G.

“I also told them that friends in Portugal told me that the truck is in Alvor, a town near Albufeira in the Algarve.”

The detectives who interviewed Alan and Cindy in East London’s Limehouse police station told them all the information would be passed on to Portuguese police.

Hewlett, who has been jailed three times for attacks on young girls, is currently in hospital in Aachen, Germany, recovering from throat cancer surgery.

Investigators working for Kate and Gerry McCann arrived in the city last night in the hope of interviewing Hewlett, possibly even today. Detectives from West Yorkshire are currently waiting for permission from the German authorities to question Hewlett in connection with an unsolved indecent assault from 1975.

Hewlett, 64, will have to see the British officers if permission is granted. But he will have the right to refuse to speak to the McCanns’ team of retired policemen.

German police also plan to take a DNA swab from Hewlett to check it against traces obtained during the Madeleine investigation conducted by Portuguese police.

A couple who met Hewlett when he and his family were staying at a campsite in Morocco yesterday said he had told them he knew the Ocean Club resort where the McCanns stayed extremely well.

Peter and Nisrine Verran, who chatted to Hewlett shortly after Madeleine’s disappearance, said the ex-fair-ground worker seemed obsessed with the case.

He told them he had parked a van near the McCanns’ apartment complex on several occasions.

Peter, 46, said: “He brought Madeleine up straight away.

He said his three-year-old daughter looked like her.

“He was worried because there had been reports that Madeleine may have been spirited away to Morocco, people might think his child was her. Then he suddenly said ‘Madeleine’s not in Morocco’.

“I asked him what he meant and he said he knew Praia Da Luz really well. He knew the Ocean Club complex where the McCanns had been staying. He said he’d been there many times and often parked his van close to the apartment.”

The Mirror revealed last week that the Thompsons were on an extended holiday in Portugal in 2006 when they befriended Hewlett, his German wife Mariana and their six children.

It was only after they returned to the UK they learned about Hewlett’s sinister past.

They raised the alarm when they realised he and his family had been staying at a camping site an hour from Praia da Luz when Madeleine vanished. Leicestershire Police, the McCanns home force, said yesterday: “The disappearance of Madeleine McCann remains a Portuguese investigation.”

To most people Portugal's state-run orphanages seemed like a safe haven for thousands of children who had been robbed of their parents. They were called the Casa Pia, or Houses of the Pious.

But for an elite paedophile ring, which included a former ambassador and a prominent television celebrity, Casa Pia orphanages were something entirely different. They were supermarkets stocked with children to abuse. Yesterday, at the conclusion of the longest trial in Portugal's history, seven defendants were convicted of using the orphanages to rape and abuse scores of teenage boys in a case that has sent shockwaves through the country's political elite and raised serious concerns over the efficiency of Portugal's judiciary. Six of the seven were given jail terms of between five and 18 years.

The trial, in Lisbon's top criminal court, is thought to be the largest ever undertaken by Portugal's court system. Over five and half years, more than 800 witnesses, including 32 alleged victims, gave evidence detailing how a paedophile ring used the orphanages to source children for wealthy and influential clients. The sentencing document alone, of which judges spent most of yesterday reading a summary, runs to 2,000 pages.

Two of those found guilty included Carlos Cruz, a popular television chat-show host with 30 years in show business, and Jorge Ritto, a former ambassador once sent home in disgrace from a posting in Germany over allegations that he had been having an improper relationship with a young boy in a park.

Their co-defendants included Carlos Silvino, an orphanage driver who would ferry children to paedophile houses; Joao Ferreira Diniz, a prominent doctor who often deliberately picked out deaf and dumb children; Manuel Abrantes, a former deputy principal at an orphanage; solicitor Hugo Marcal and Gertrude Nunes, the only female defendant who allowed her house to be used by the paedophile ring. The successful convictions, eight years after the paedophile scandal was exposed, is a major victory for Portuguese police, under intense criticism over their handling of the investigation into the disappearance of Madeleine McCann. One of the lead detectives in the Casa Pia case, Paulo Rebelo, also investigated the Madeleine McCann disappearance after the original lead investigator was sacked. Rebelo and his team of forensic investigators – called "the cleaners" because they leave no stones unturned – are said to have played a pivotal role in securing the convictions.

But the trial was dogged by accusations that witnesses had been intimidated, and allegations that senior politicians turned a blind eye to the abuse to protect friends. Reports that paedophiles were using Casa Pia orphanages to source victims surfaced in the early 1980s but they were swept under the carpet. Teresa Costa Macedo, a senior government official, said she informed the country's then president, General Ramalho Eanes, and provided photographic evidence. But the photographs were "lost" by police and Mrs Macedo said she was also intimidated by phone calls from anonymous callers. "They said they would kill me, flay me and a lot of other things," she recalled.

The current trial began in 2004 after a lengthy investigation started by nine boys who had been at one of the homes in Lisbon accused several people of sexual abuse between 1998 and 2001. Their decision to come forward prompted hundreds more witnesses to speak out and has lead to a tripling in the number of child-abuse investigations across Portugal.

Victims have told investigators that abuse at Casa Pia orphanages – of which there about 10 around the country – occurred as far back as the 1970s but most witness testimonies used for the trial came from victims who were abused during the 1990s. Prosecutors still believe there are more victims out there too scared to talk.

The prosecution's case centred around Silvino, known to the paedophile ring as "Bibi". The 53-year-old confessed to 639 charges relating to the abuse of children or procuring them for others, and testified against the other defendants. He admitted he had used the orphanages to collect victims and delivered them to co-defendants such as Cruz who, Silvino claimed, paid cash.

Cruz has denied the accusations and claimed in press interviews during the trial that he was the victim of prejudice from one of the three judges trying the case. Yesterday the 68-year-old dismissed the verdict built on "lies and manipulation", adding: "This is one of the most monstrous judicial mistakes in Portuguese history."

He and the other defendants are expected to appeal. It is not clear whether the defendants would be jailed with an appeal pending.

Alvaro Carvalho, a psychiatrist who has counselled the victims and was in court with some them yesterday, said they were nervous as they awaited the verdict. "They calmed down when the judge ruled that the crimes were proven," Mr Carvalho told reporters. "In a way, it's society making reparation for what happened to them."

Pedro Namora, a former resident of a Casa Pia orphanage who says he was abused, became a lawyer and played a pivotal role in the prosecution. "These men have to be condemned," he said. "They committed barbarous crimes against humanity."

The scandal that went right to the top

João Ferreira Diniz

A wealthy doctor, Diniz was arrested in January 2003 near his office in Belem, Lisbon. He insisted on his innocence throughout the trial. He has been sentenced to seven years in jail after being found guilty of abusing two children. His accusers claimed they had been abused by him at a house in Elvas, owned by co-defendant Gertrude Nunes.

Jorge Ritto

One of the most high-profile figures to be caught up in Portugal's largest paedophile ring, Ritto was once a career diplomat with a glittering career. He retired in 2002 after serving as Portugal's ambassador to Unesco. During the trial it emerged that he was sent home from a posting in Stuttgart in the early 1980s after allegations surfaced that he had been caught in an "improper relationship" with a boy in a park. He denied all charges in the Casa Pia trial. He was jailed for six years.

Carlos Cruz

Once voted "Portugal's most popular man", Carlos Cruz has spent three decades as one of the country's most recognisable television personalities. The 68-year-old fronted a number of successful shows during his career in the media and famously married a wife who is three decades his junior. He was arrested in 2003. He has repeatedly alleged that his arrest was the result of "a vendetta". Cruz is now facing a seven-year jail sentence.

The trial in numbers

800 witnesses and experts gave evidence in the case.

4,500 people were cared for at Casa Pia homes for children in need.

639 crimes were confessed to by ex-Casa Pia driver Carlos Silvino.

2,000 pages: the length of the sentencing document.

32 victims were identified during the near six-year trial._________________The Medium is the Massage - Marshall McLuhan.

The police broke into Hollie and her mother's house, while they were on holiday, trashed it, took Hollie's computer, then said they had done it because they had had a 'tip-off' that Hollie had disappeared!!
Then they took Hollie;'s mother to the High Court, to try to get Hollie taken into care (they lost, but effectively 'gagged' Hollie's mother).
Richard Green, who stood for Parliament, was banned from visiiting the area he was campaigning for; check out the site.

I know this is a 'Portugal' site, but I hope some leeway will be granted here, as he is entered in a 'Community Champion' vote, and if he wins, it will give a great boost to expose paedophilia in high places.
I can't think of a worthier 'Community Champion' than one who campaigns so tirelessly to expose these evil predators.
Please check out website below, and vote for an anti-paedophile hero:

It was reported on 7th August that the Metropolitan Police (London)have confirmed in an email that Madeleine McCann, aged 5, who wassnatched on 3rd May 2007 in Praia de Luz, Portugal, as widelyrehearsed in the media, was abducted to the order of a paedophileorganisation based in Belgium. We have been informed that the waythis depraved activity operates is that the ’client‘ is sent threephotographs of children, and chooses one of them, who is thenprovided, to meet his depraved requirements. The individual whoselected little Madeleine McCann is a very senior official of theEuropean Commission in Brussels. His name has been reported to thisservice [see below].

The Editor had intended to WITHHOLD the identityof the senior EC official concerned. However, in the light ofthe ‘triple gunshot threat voicemail‘ referenced above, and giventhat in these cricumstances, the lapse of time between the threatand the exposure must be minimised, we have been forced to revealthe top European Commission official concerned.

The paedophile and abduction ring is. moreover, actually run out ofthe European Commission itself. The current position is that the DVDare refusing to release the child, although our British sources havereason to believe that she remains alive. It has been conveyed toDVD that if this child is harmed (beyond the abominable degree towhich the child has already been harmed), the consequences will beextreme. This posting will serve as an immediate wake-up call andwarning that this child must be released into the care of herparents forthwith and that the use of this child as hostage in anynegotiations with British authorities is considered an abominationwell beyond the normal range of abominations for which the Nazipervert DVD are notorious.

All those concerned must be aware of the consequences of furtherexposure of this matter. Such exposure would compromise pervertedpoliticians in the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Belgium and Italy,as well as the corrupt European Union structures

THE WAY OF AWAKENING
Madeleine McCann and the scandal of the EU Commission
Corrado Belli What happened to Madeleine? It is still alive or has done the same fate as many other children disappeared, that is, after having suffered unspeakable violence were killed and made ​​to disappear? try to give a name and a face to those who daily enjoy a sort of innocent people to satisfy their perverse lifestyle dotted with Satanism and violence. few years ago, it was reported this trade in children from a young journalist Janett Seemann in collaboration with Marcel Vervloesem a Belgian human rights activist, Verveloesem is holding 21 CDs with movies in which Children can recognize the victims as well as their executioners, back in 1998, this person had complained to the authorities of the EU Commission and several European countries, that there was a worldwide organization dedicated to the criminal abduction of children, which in turn were used for movies of Pedophilia, sent into prostitution, tortured and eventually killed. In one of the CD was recognized the child of German origin Manuel Schadwald disappeared and never found, the faces of the other 83,000 children are seen in the movies as they are recognizable even many of those cha misused their small steps corpi.Alcuni information given by the Metropolitan Police in London: MADELEINE MCCANN AND THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION PEADOPHILE SCANDAL: It was reported on August 7th That the Metropolitan Police (London) have confirmed in an email That Madeleine McCann, aged 5, who wassnatched on 3rd May 2007 in Praia de Luz, Portugal, as widelyrehearsed in the media, was abducted to the order of a paedophileorganisation based in Belgium. We have been informed That the waythis depraved activity Operates Is that the 'client' is sent threephotographs of children, and chooses one of them, who is thenprovided, to meet his depraved requirements. The individual whoselected little Madeleine McCann is a very senior official of theEuropean Commission in Brussels. His name has been reported to thisservice [see below]. The 7.8. the Metropolitan Police in London has sent an e-mail to the media in which it confirmed that the child MaCann Madeleine disappeared May 3, 2007 in Praia de Luz "Portugal" has been kidnapped by a Belgian organization specializing in kidnapping children at an early age, the person concerned are shown photos of three subjects (children) and has the ability to choose which of the three likes to satisfy his perverse desires, the person who chose the Madeleine maccann is a senior official of the European Commission. LATE INSERTION: The Editor had Intended to withhold the identityof the senior EC official Concerned. However, in the light ofthe 'triple gunshot threat voicemail' referenced above, and giventhat In These cricumstances, the lapse of time between the threatand the exposure must be minimised, we have been forced to revealthe top European Commission official Concerned. This publisher wanted to highlight the name of the person who is a senior official of the EU, but because of the three threats that have been submitted for Via Voicemail, we are forced to mention the name of the high EU official: His hereby shamed name is Jose Manuel Barroso , the President of the European Commission. Notice is hereby given that the author of this shameful act is Jose Manuel Barroso, President of the European Commission. The pedophile and abduction ring is. Moreover, actually run out ofthe European Commission itself. The current position Is that the DVDare Refusing to release the child, Although our British sources havereason to believe That she remains alive. It has been conveyed toDVD That if this child is harmed (beyond the abominable degree towhich the child has been harmed Already), The Consequences will beextreme. This posting will serve as an immediate wake-up call andwarning That this child must be released into the care of herparents forthwith And that the use of this child as hostage in anynegotiations with British Authorities is Considered an abominationwell beyond the normal range of abominations for Which Nazipervert the DVD are notorious. Organization dedicated to this Pedophilia is managed directly by the European Commission, the situation is this, categorically denies to return the girl back and see the movie on the DVD through our informants know that the girl is still alive and who has been injured more times, the DVD has been delivered, but still refuses and is determined to except the consequences Extreme more towards the girl using it as blackmail in the case of the Authority dementire English and also show how perversion works this Organization-Nazi pedophile that is shown in the DVD. All Those Concerned must be aware of the Consequences of furtherexposure of this matter. Such exposure would compromise pervertedpoliticians in the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Belgium and Italy, as well as the corrupt European Union structures All interested persons should know consciously that will pay the consequences, the publication of this document affect the perverse Political Dutch, Belgian , Portugal, Spain, Italy including the entire corrupt structure of the EU. http://www.forumromanum.de/member/forum /entry_ubb.user_82391.2.1105138957.1105138957.1.jos% C3% A9_manuel_barroso_madeleine_mccann-verkuender_des_lichts.html

The site above is the letters sent to Chancellor Angela Merkel and movie Janett Seemann. Did you know Janett Seemann disappeared after sending a letter to German Chancellor Angela Merkel in which this was the situation in which disappear Children and where they end up, its website has been blocked and she disappeared from circulation, it was believed that it was "committed suicide" or even made ​​to disappear, but he had the insight to understand what the machinery that would set in motion while not to leak this news is still alive and we hope that one day these criminals are summoned to judgment to pay for their sins, Marcel Verveosem was arrested by Belgian authorities after delivering 21 DVD to the same authority, even before you begin the process "Farce" you knew he would be sentenced to five years in prison for summary, at the moment we have no information in that state of health is or if he is still alive, Top Secret is called the place where he was taken. 's DVD possible to recognize prominent personalities in European Policy International and some components of Royal Houses. http://ec.europa.eu/archives /commission_2004-2009 /index_en.htm

the site above are some of the people implicated in the scandal Pedophilia at the European level, some have had to leave their office even before it was expired and who are now active in their local governments as ministers, others are still in place to take advantage Immunity that has been promised by the EU Parliament, many of them are the ones that keep us at the Health and safety of children (in their own way .. but) it should be emphasized that they are all under the control of Pharmaceutical Lobby that manage each Member or Commissioner, the insiders to divert attention on this issue are the Commissioners for Health and Social Affairs, they have the task of issuing Read more restrictive EU citizens whenever is a scandal that involves the whole Parliament, prohibitions and Prohibition in America which serves to cover the misdeeds of Organizations dedications to Pedophilia and Satanism. 's no wonder that in this organization are part of those who want to eliminate 3/4 Population on Earth, including the Criminal Bush administration and the current one, in the book written by Mark Phillips & Cathy O'Brien "The Tranceformation Americas" is described as a clear move these criminals. There has to be observed as the Switzerland moves toward a perverse law, there are Swiss politicians who want to reintroduce freedom of Incest, you read that right .. Incest, which means that in Europe pedophilia and incest are or will be accepted as normal within the four walls of the house, but it happens who are these politicians of the Confederation, the two most aggressive prohibitionists at national and former consultants who have worked in the ranks of the WHO, now sit for the National Council of the Swiss Confederation and dictate Laws against their own citizens, laws that promote incest and pedophilia .. always for the Health and Safety of Children. few days ago I read an Article of the Free Press: http://www.stampalibera.com/? P = 19266

I thought that no one will occupy most of this Infamy Global level, because the resonance was not very high even if this news was also reported on the website of Laleva of Archimedes and Scienzamarcia: http://scienzamarcia.blogspot.com /2008/04 /pedophile-Satanism-and-newOrdine.html-

Do you remember the deal Dutroux in Belgium? .. and that one of the culprits was pardoned by the king of Belgium? Well, read the site below, the real documentation on Pedophilia that is everywhere in Belgium and everywhere http://www.scribd.com/doc/36362392 /Beyond-the-Dutroux Affair-T-he-Reality-of-Ch-Protectedild-Abuse-and-Snuff-Networks

Well, now we can also understand why girls Angela Celentano and Denise Pipitone are not, it is to understand why the police involved in the search for these girls are always stopped or diverted elsewhere when they are on the right track. (Corrado Belli)

I can't imagine the Met sending the media an 'email' on this subject!
But perhaps the writer meant someone in the 'media' (maybe themselves) emailed the Met with information, and the Met replied, not quite dismissing the allegations.
But I don't like ruling anything out on a case like this._________________'And he (the devil) said to him: To thee will I give all this power, and the glory of them; for to me they are delivered, and to whom I will, I give them'. Luke IV 5-7.

One of Portugal's most famous television presenters and a former ambassador were among six men found guilty yesterday of involvement with a paedophile prostitution ring that exploited children from state-run orphanages.
The guilty verdicts handed down to TV presenter Carlos Cruz and the five others exposed the truth of more than three decades of rumours about systematic abuse of young boys at the 230-year-old Casa Pia network of orphanages.
It was only when Joel, a former orphanage boy, came forward in 2002 and accused some of the country's best-known names of being involved that Portugal woke up to full horror of the scandal.
Members of Portugal's media, civil service and professional elite were alleged to be regular abusers of the boys, some younger than 14. Even well-known politicians were involved, it was initially rumoured. A flood of accusations from boys who had passed through the Casa Pia system followed. Some 32 boys alleged at least 800 crimes.

The case pitted the orphanage boys against a group of well-educated, influential people – including a former ambassador to Unesco, a lawyer, a doctor and Cruz. Yesterday, eight years after they dared to speak out, the boys finally won their case.
The four men and two former orphanage employees received sentences of between just under six years and 18 years. Carlos Silvino, a 53-year-old Casa Pia worker who confessed to 600 crimes and gave evidence against other defendants was sentenced to 18 years.
"The court recognised that we were telling the truth," said Bernardo Teixeira, one of the victims. "It's a happy ending for us. The paedophiles are going to jail."
The court ruling was hailed as a victory by those fighting for children's rights in Portugal. "The stories that I heard were the most terrible of my life," said Catalina Pestana, who was put in charge of the Casa Pia orphanages after the crimes were first reported in 2002.
"I think Portugal, the country, all of us, won a lot from this process. Now, when a child accuses an adult, nobody will look with the same lack of attention that they did for many years."
The court case lasted six years, bringing additional outrage about the slow way in which Portugal's legal system worked. The case was already in court when three-year-old Madeleine McCann disappeared while on holiday with her family in the Algarve in 2007. Portuguese police were, at the time, defensive about claims, particularly those made in the British press, that they had a history of mishandling cases involving children.
Buried in the case paperwork are allegations that Casa Pia was known to paedophiles internationally and that some flew in to abuse children from the orphanage, according to at least one source familiar with the case.
Portuguese media provided live running coverage of the reading of the sentence. The judges said they were giving only an abbreviated version of events, with a much fuller judgment due to be made public next week. The senior member of the three-judge panel, Ana Peres, began by warning those present that the abuse they described would be graphic and shocking. "Some of the accounts could be considered pornographic," she said.
Cruz, 68, who was once voted Portugal's most popular man, had paid for sex with a 14-year-old, the judges declared. He also abused at least one other boy. The father of two was known as "Mr Television" after several decades as a national star. He was sentenced to seven years in jail.
A doctor, Ferreira Diniz, was also sentenced to seven years and a former ambassador, Jorge Ritto, 74, to six years, and the former Casa Pia ombudsman, Manuel Abrantes, to five. They were found guilty of abusing several young boys.
The court found that boys had been regularly taken to a house in the eastern town of Elvas during the 1990s to meet the paedophile clients. Abuse had also taken place in Lisbon.
Some of the victims who gave evidence were present to hear the verdicts. Psychiatrists said several of the victims had tried to kill themselves after denouncing the abuse to the police. One threw himself from a second-floor window.
Lawyers said their clients would almost certainly appeal. "It seems inevitable that we will have to appeal," said Cruz's lawyer, Antonio Serra Lopes, before the sentence was read out. "This is the first round."

• This article was amended on 7 September 2010. The original headline said Carlos Cruz jailed for seven years. This has been corrected._________________--
'Suppression of truth, human spirit and the holy chord of justice never works long-term. Something the suppressors never get.' David Southwell
http://aangirfan.blogspot.comhttp://aanirfan.blogspot.com
Martin Van Creveld: Let me quote General Moshe Dayan: "Israel must be like a mad dog, too dangerous to bother."
Martin Van Creveld: I'll quote Henry Kissinger: "In campaigns like this the antiterror forces lose, because they don't win, and the rebels win by not losing."

You cannot post new topics in this forumYou cannot reply to topics in this forumYou cannot edit your posts in this forumYou cannot delete your posts in this forumYou cannot vote in polls in this forumYou cannot attach files in this forumYou can download files in this forum